Hidden truths
by Boz1310
Summary: AU: Ran and Shinichi/Conan meet up many years later in a restaurant in New York to discuss their going ons. This is what would happen if Conan never transformed back into Shinichi... OC- Arthur Edogawa


**Hidden Truths **

**Boz1310**

**Warning: I do not own Detective Conan. If I did, Ran would have learned Conan's true identity ages ago. *Arthur Edogawa is my character*.**

"I'll have a latte please." She said to the waiter, watching the man scribble her order in his notebook. She fought back a blush when she realized where his eyes were. "Uh… my face is up here." She said firmly, but smirking a little on the inside. The waiter's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he practically vomited a half-hearted apology and flitted away. When all she could see was the back of his head, she burst into laughter, catching the attention of the people around her. Still, she couldn't blame him. After all, she made the mistake of wearing the most revealing shirt she owned to this dinner date. To her horror, it began to rain rather heavily on her way to the restaurant. She did not bring an umbrella, nor did she hail a cab, deciding that it would be a waste of money since the place was of walking distance. Only when she went to the bathroom to touch up her makeup did she notice the revealing **and **sheer quality of her attire_. "Oh dear"_ she thought, a touch bemused._ "Not the look I was going for, but I'll have to work with it._" She was a little early when arriving at the restaurant and hoped that the time and dry atmosphere of the restaurant would be enough to dry her shirt. But, she could see that was not going to happen. Ran Mouri knew she was going to have some explaining to do when her dinner date arrived- and here he was. She gave a quick wave to catch his attention. The restaurant was not busy, but she was sitting in the far back where it was difficult to see her unless you were purposefully trying. He spotted her and walked towards her.

He wore a dark suit with purple tie and loafers. He had shaved, quite recently, and donned a pair of horn rimmed glasses that only seemed to enhance his deep set and sapphire coloured eyes. He wore his hair in a similar fashion as he did many years ago when they were children. It shook a little as he sat down in the seat across from her.

To her amusement, his face coloured into a tomato red when he lay eyes upon her- or rather the middle area of her.

"I can explain." She laughed as he struggled to keep his eyes on her face- and only her face.

"No need" he said, gulping and chuckling quietly. She was surprised at how low his voice was- how he had matured all these years without her presence. "You look great"

"You do too" she said "albeit a little out of breath"

"You have no idea" he explained. "I was stuck in the precinct doing textbooks of paperwork when I noticed the time."

"On a Sunday?" she asked disbelieved.

"Crime never sleeps." He grinned. "So I drop of Arthur off at my neighbours and race down here. Mind you, I was already dressed up- I didn't forget or anything."

"Not whole heartedly anyway" she said, pretending to be upset when he gave her a sheepish look. She couldn't be that upset though. He was a busy man- head homicide detective for the NYPD and full time father. She should be glad he could come at all.

"How is Arthur?" she inquired after Conan made his order. After all these years living in the US, he was still befuddled with all the types of coffees. Lattes, expressoes, macchiatos, it was still all just coffee to him. He preferred tea anyways. He ordered a "black coffee" much to the chagrin of the waiter who had to deal with decoding his vague demand. Ran noticed that her cup was still more than half full and decided to finish it before it got cold, colder anyway.

"Little rascal's fine" he said warmly. "I've been teaching him how to read braille and use a cane these past few days- so that's been a lot of fun… Or rather I suppose my neighbours have." He grinned sheepishly again. The confused look on Ran's face begged for clarification.

"My neighbour Paul has a sister who's blind, so he can read braille and everything. He and his partner don't have kids of their own, so they've practically taken Arthur in whenever I'm particularly busy at the precinct. Before you say anything, his partner is a police officer as well and I've done background checks on the both of them." Ran nodded and took another sip of her latte. Their food had come and Conan decided to chew with his mouth open, another bad habit he had acquired over the years to the annoyance of Ran.

"How are you doing?" he asked after an awkward silence between them.

"Same old, same old." She said feeling a tad uncomfortable. "I got an invitation to teach a course at Princeton University, so that's pretty exciting." For some reason, she was beginning to regret calling Conan up and asking him to join her for dinner. But she didn't know why. At least she couldn't uncover any logical reason as to why. Perhaps it was because Conan had a life and a family and could move on while she was still clinging to past memories- unable to differentiate past from present. Perhaps, it was because she knew he was Shinichi Kudo and still loved him but also knew that there was no antidote so he could never return to his real body and live in his true identity. It wasn't the ten year gap that made a romantic relationship of anykind between them impossible, but rather the fact that they were living different lives with no commonalities between them anymore. Suddenly she felt like crying. Conan took notice of her changing emotions- became aware of the conflict surging within her, building like a storm at sea would.

"At least your shirt is dried now." He joked, attempting to liven the spirits to the festive mood it had been at the start of their date. But he knew it was with no avail. The harsh reality had settled itself in-crashing their date and warping the atmosphere into that of a nervous and tense one. Suddenly, Ran asked something that caught him completely off guard.

"Conan, who is Arthur's mother?"

Awkward. Very, very awkward. He knew that no attempt at small talk, she really wanted to know. However, Ran took note of his pained expression and quickly added, "Not that you have to tell me if you don't feel comfortable. I would just like to know who she is."

"_What kind of woman she is"_ she didn't add but knew Conan understood. Normally Conan didn't like to talk of Arthur's mother. Everyone down at the Police department knew. However he felt as if he owed her this for some reason. He felt that she had right to know.

"Her name was Cassidy. We met when I was 23 and began dating shortly after that. She was smart and beautiful, alluring even. She was also a psychologist working for the NYPD at the time so we hit it off pretty quickly. We went out one night and after that, went back to her place. I forgot to bring a condom and nine months later Arthur popped into the world."

"What happened to her?" Ran asked, intrigued at this story and a little surprised at Conan's careless behaviour. Conan looked as if he aged 10 years in just a couple of minutes.

"It didn't work out. We had arguments constantly and drifted apart. She got a job offer and moved to San Francisco a year later. We weren't married so there wasn't a lot of paperwork to fill out or anything like that. We both decided I would raise Arthur for the most part, but she still comes up twice a year to spend time with the little guy."

"I'm sorry."

"I am too. I still love her quite a bit, but I always knew it wouldn't work out. Somehow. I just knew it. It's better this way. She's getting married next spring, which is more than I can say for myself."

Once again it drifted into a deafening silence. Conan finished his meal and gave a quick glance at his watch. 9:00 pm. He put down two twenties and got up.

"It's getting late. I should get going. Don't want to keep the little guy waiting." He paused before continuing. " It's been great seeing you again Ran, it honestly has."

Ran opened her mouth but nothing came out except for the word "goodbye"

"Hope to see you again soon." He said walking away. He paused at the door and waved before exiting the restaurant.

"You too Shin- Conan-kun." She murmured sadly, too quiet and too late for him to hear.

**Hoped you enjoyed my first fic. Please feel free to review and message me your comments! =)**

**BOZ- April 28th, 2013**


End file.
